Previous Dated Entry: « Ermis
Next: On Cley Beach »
2th
December
2007

STORY & PLOT

Before; then the stone age, then the bronze age, then the iron age, then the ancients, then the greeks, then the romans, then the dark ages, then the middle ages, then the renaissance, then discovery, then machinery, then now.

An insect man sits with his many eyes looking through rituals of decomposition. Through slits of carven writing, through thumb-nubbed tool handles and the faded devices of dynasties.
The insect Man is a factory, a pick-axe handle, a razor of flint, a plank, an ankh, a camera shutter, a tail-fin. Insect man don’t know no love don’t know no hurt; knows blood and guts and fucks though, squeezed into words and sediment, and long rows of figures under headings in a thousand hands.
Insect Man doesn’t know taste. His room is a cave of threads, his bed is of reeds, the uppers of his shoes are london, soled athens, a tongue of rome, it’s straps are flayed donatello and stippled with arcadia.
Then Insect Man is made of emulsion, his carapace is celluloid glazed with moving pictures and a dark cave wall. His mouth is empty, his teeth are stretched out on a rope many nights long.
Insect Man never woke up to it, he has stared for all your lives with his milky insect eyes that don’t know, that don’t know and he is tired, and he was tired, and he tires of tiring when he is born again. Was tired in the first Fire, the first Gun Shot, the first Sling Shot to The Moon and Back, to the first Dull Edge, the first Sharp One too.
An insect man sits with his many eyes, and he cannot see, he hasn‘t got the right, he ain’t got the hang, no manual, no remit, no certificate, no proof of ownership. They’re not his eyes.

One Response to “STORY & PLOT”

jace on * 8 December 2007 at 4:00 pm 

wonderful……

Leave a Reply


Submit to TiM
Mailing List
TYPE Review
Authors
Archives
Eat the Mic
Home
About
RSS Feed
Podcast Feed
Contact

Recent Poetry

Famine Bread 
by Joshua Seigal 
In 1891 the rains never came. Carts jammed the dust-tracks from Voronezh, the sky lit ...

Fading into Blue 
by Natalie Williams 
She: she I see; woman standing in a sunset. As she stands, I am enamoured. As enamoured as she is glamoured....

The Stone Room 
by Robert Craig Weldon 
Why is not the stone of Scotland: a pillar of Mull basalt a weathered board of gneiss the pink of Nevis ...

The Circus People 
by Joshua Seigal 
Jessie is two, she’s scared of me – my hands to her are ursine paws, my beard is tangled foliage wrappe...

On Cley Beach 
by Robbie Guillory 

STORY & PLOT 
by Tom Coles 

Ermis 
by Isabel Sanders 

I am the seal of St... 
by Isabel Sanders 

Field 
by Robbie Guillory 

October! October! W... 
by Jack Haddad 

Recent Prose

The Soap Factory, P... 
by Patrick Otley 
Once, long time, ago, crawling through a window, I recalled a pleasant recollection I'd once had some good fe...

The Soap Factory, P... 
by Patrick Otley 
Once, long time ago, puffing on a pipe and digging my fat toes into the shag, and supping on a thick rimmed gl...

Not Changed 
by Liz Lochhead 

Passes 
by Tom Coles 

Odyssey 
by Patrick Otley 

Recent Podcasts

7th Nov 07 Podcast #5 
You can download or play the latest Don't Eat the Microphone Podcast above. The show was held on the 7th of No...

21st Feb 07 Podcast #4 
Play the podcast with the controls above or ...

13th Dec Podcast #3 

6th Dec Podcast #2 

29th Nov Podcast #1 

 


Welcome to Toad in Mud. We are an online publishing venture showcasing new writers and contemporary literature for prose, poetry and all other literary forms. Like a traditional journal we editorially select and comment on works submitted. Please take your time and enjoy. To the left you can find our currently featured work.

Recent Editorial

TYPE Review 
Autumn 2008 will see the launch of a new publication. TYPE Review will be a thrice-yearly subscription and ret...

BBC Radio Scotland 
Tune in to 92.4 - 94.7 FM or 810 MW, or visit http://ww...

The Pleasures of Clarity 

Lorem Ipsum Explanation 

Recent Comments:

  • francesca napier: very moving.
  • Rascalapee: Top Notch ol chap
  • James Fountain: Wonderful - alive and textured, the layers of metaphor work well together.
  • Melina: very interesting. i’m adding in RSS Reader
  • jace: wonderful……

  • Recent Trackbacks:

  • qarrtsiluni: Insecta: Notes on Contributors
  • qarrtsiluni: Insecta: Notes on Contributors

  • Affiliate Links:

  • Alan Bisset Online
  • BBC Scotland Book Cafe
  • EngLitSoc Glasgow
  • Fuselit
  • nthposition
  • Peat Poets
  • Pooka Delaval
  • The Poetry Library